i have a lot of confidence in harry reid's negotiating ability. mitch mcconnell is a veteran negotiator, and i think there's a far better prospect of something being worked out in the senate than there was dealing with speaker boehner and his completely dysfunctional house republican party. >> sure. well, abiding by convention and of course protocol, the senate won't return until sunday. will there be enough time for the senate leaders to really craft a deal that is substantiative and makes a difference, especially to the most vulnerable americans? >> yeah, i think the two keys that the president laid out are to protect middle class americans from tax increases and to protect families that haven't been able to get back in the workforce have having their unemployment insurance cut off. and if those two things can be done, a lot of the rest can be worked in in the weeks and days to come. we have other deadlines coming up for the debt limit and for the end of the continuing resolution, so i think this is likely to be a bit of a continuing process. bu